Tuesday, June 6, 2017

THE RISE, FALL AND BETRAYAL OF THE ONLINE FIGHT FOR SYRIA By Ghassan Kadi 5 June 2017

THE RISE, FALL AND BETRAYAL OF THE ONLINE FIGHT FOR SYRIA

By Ghassan Kadi

5 June 2017

Initially, when the online social media-based Syrian defence groups took off, they were meant to fill-in the social media gap that the Syrian Government was not prepared for. For this reason, concerned and responsible Syrian citizens took upon themselves the task of using the new communication medium to do their bit in defending the homeland.

In the beginning it was monumental, and reached out to the world, and most importantly, the English-speaking world.

It was perhaps because of this initial success that the movement was soon to be attacked and become subject to information warfare. It would be foolish to think otherwise and believe that the enemies of Syria would leave this very successful movement alone.

Before too long, that online social media-based Syrian defence movement, especially the English-speaking version of it, turned into a forum for implants and weak links of a multitude of motivations including, but not restricted to, the following:

1. Hired (ie paid) trolls who were planted into the online Syrian defence front just like the terrorist militants were hired and paid to go and fight inside Syria.

2. Individuals who jumped on the band-wagon in order to gain personal accolade for their own gratification and satisfaction.

3. Money-hungry opportunists who capitalized on crowd-funding for their own personal benefit, and did so repeatedly without showing any evidence of passing on any portion of those funds to needy Syrians.

4. Religious zealots, mainly Christian Zionists, who grabbed the opportunity of the rise of Jihadi Islamism to promote their own doctrine and their own version of Christianity and presenting it as a religion that is better than Islam.

5. Highly suspicious Syrians who have allowed enemies of Syria to infiltrate into social media groups, allowed them to become admins of such groups, and defended them against Syrian patriots.

6. Corrupt and complacent Syrian government personnel who did not properly vet out would be Western visitors to Syria and ignored warnings about the above repeatedly and did nothing about it.

7. Orientalists, ie Westerners who believe that nothing good can and will happen in the East in general, the Levant to be specific, without their involvement and seal of approval.

8. Well-intentioned Syrians with bad judgement who were deluded enough to follow wolves in sheep’s clothing.

9. Weak Syrians who were unable to see the forest from the trees and followed their enemies against their own compatriots.

10.Corrupt Syrians who were prepared to sell their souls to the highest bidder, be prepared to lie, fabricate stories, and attack other Syrians for no reason other than being told to do so by their sponsors.

Six years, going on seven, after the “War on Syria” started, a good look at what is left of the online English–speaking defence groups makes one wonder; where are the genuine indigenous Syrian patriots? There seems to be none left!

But this is not all.

The moment a Syrian stood up to expose the truth, any truth about any of the above culprits, despite their vast differences, they all rallied up together to call that Syrian an enemy of Syria. They used everything in their power to defame him, destroy him, and shone the spotlights on themselves as THE defenders of Syria and the custodians of her war. Many of the non-Syrians among them even dared call genuine Syrian patriots as enemies of Syria, and the weak Syrians and corrupt Syrians and personnel shamelessly danced to their drum beats, seemingly unmoved by the blood of tens of thousands of Syrian soldiers and many more tens of thousands of civilians who have perished defending the homeland.

Eventually, many Syrians who joined that online movement initially have either been bullied out, walked away in disgust, or have been destroyed. But as time goes by, the tides have been turning.

History is recording everything and once exposed, the non-Syrian trolls, ego-trippers, money-grabbers, Zionist-church-builders and other enemies of Syria will be temporarily put in a specific basket and then forgotten and relegated to the rubbish bin of history.

The ones who will not be forgotten or forgiven will be the Syrians who took up arms to fight against Syria.

In this particular context herein however, the ones who will not be forgiven the most are Syrians who have betrayed the online Syria defence movement. After all, it was them who have allowed the enemies of Syria to infiltrate the online social media-based Syrian defence groups despite all evidence that was presented to them. They are not any better than those who carried guns. They are in fact two of a kind. The first group gave the militants the key into Syria and the second group gave the key to the media infiltration agents.

Those Syrians who are at best spineless, perhaps shameless, but most probably deliberate troll-admins, who knowingly and deliberately covered up for the enemies of Syria, have eventually driven away Syrian patriots, and even had the audacity to appoint Christian Zionists who clearly belong to Churches that endorse Israel, against evidence provided, to be admins in online social media-based Syrian defence groups. Furthermore, they defended them when they were exposed, and turned the attack against the Syrian patriots who highlighted the evidence. Their actions are akin to treason, and they know it.

The once biggest online Facebook Syrian defence group “The Syrian Revolution; The Untold Story” which I was a proud member of for many years, and had written many articles for, has turned into a group run by Christian Zionists and Syrians of highly suspicious agendas who endorse their actions.

Moreover, those Syrian admins have even knowingly allowed the Christian Zionist admins to perpetrate lies, slander, endanger and defame Syrian patriots. And when they were given the benefit of the doubt and alerted to what they were doing, knowingly or unknowingly, they remained defiant and steadfast on their path of destruction. This can only indicate that they knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew that it is against Syria’s interest.

They do not need to be named at this stage, but a time will come when they will be named and shamed, and this time is coming soon, and eventually they will face justice.

About Me

Many things Ghassan Kadi wrote were possibly not discussed in books written in the English language or outside of the Levant. Many things he wrote about were quite unique because I think Ghassan has brought something quite special to us all during this terrible time for Syria. I saw his words and concepts mirrored all over the world and even in some works of academics, analysts and other writers, sometimes acknowledged, but mostly not.
When I was admin in another group - the very largest one - Ghassan cared so much about the needs of the non-Syrian members to understand so many things no books or articles could explain. I collected a lot of his work on my blog and it's quite extensive.
I'm very proud of him and the contribution he made right from the beginning of the War on Syria (his name for this war) and there was absolutely no one else who even came close to playing any similar role to that of Ghassan's.